Fahan School is an independent girls’ school in Tasmania offering programs from Kinder–Year 12, spread across one 6.2-hectare campus in the Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay. An Alumni Visiting Project was initiated by the school’s alumni officer to connect older alumni with current students. It is a project that has brought value to students involved in the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award and our wider alumni community. The project stemmed from recognition that some alumni who had regularly attended events were no longer able to do so due to mobility issues, illness or age. Many were either in hospital or had moved into aged care. Following discussions with teaching staff, the Alumni Visiting Project was devised, providing a way to maintain the connection between these alumni and the school by taking students to visit each alumna. The project allows the students to connect personally with the alumni and the history of the school while fulfilling the community component of their award. Each alumna visited is researched in order to match them with suitable students and provide the students with background information. This research helps the students and the alumna to connect via shared interests. The project was implemented using resources already available. Alumni that are currently in aged care are identified through direct communication with older alumni and information held on our database. For initial visits, a gift bag for each alumna included school branded items such as playing cards, brushes and notebooks and was partly funded by Year 12 students who donated $200 to the project. Limited staff time and local travel expenses were allocated from existing school resources. Two students were selected for each visit and parental permission was sought. A dossier of the alumna being visited was created and contact was made with the alumna to seek an appropriate time for the visit. The project has built positive relationships between current students and alumni. Further, it has helped ensure the school’s 83-year history is recognised and documented for the school community and shared with current students. It has also assisted us in recognising and acknowledging the ongoing community and financial contributions and institutional knowledge of our oldest alumni. Moreover, it helps sustain the strong, ongoing Fahan School community relationships which form the foundation of our annual appeal and bequest programs. The school has approximately 3500 alumni, including the Nateby Club which has some 850 alumni who have been out of school for over 50 years. Nateby Club events once a term help maintain connections with older alumni. The Visiting Project means that, in future, elderly alumni who can no longer attend events will remain connected to specific students for the duration of their schooling at Fahan. Image: Two year nine students visiting one of our elderly Alumna. Feedback from parents, alumni and participating students has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging and the benefit to the Fahan School community has been tangible. The project provides a practical model for maintaining alumni engagement for life without a large budget or commitment of resources. KAZ TONKS ADMINISTRATION & ALUMNI OFFICER FAHAN SCHOOL, TASMANIA Lifelong Alumni Engagement 2018 Award Winner: Best Alumni / Community Campaign DECEMBER 2018 3 9